You're Welcome
by somethingwithatail
Summary: Ron starts working harder on his summer homework after being scolded by Mrs. Weasley. This leads to Ron noticing a change in Hermione's behavior toward him and Ginny helps him figure out what to do about it. One-shot AU after last few books Hints at RHr


Plot bunnies have been attacking and when this one attacked, I just happened to be by my laptop. So, I'm finally posting a story even if it's not the next chapter in my other story. This is (as far as I know) a one-shot. I didn't spend as much time editing this as I usually do, so there might be more mistakes. If there is and mistakes, feel free to let me know. Also, I apologize if my attempt at making up plants and potions is sad and pathetic. And… I think that was it.

Summary: Ron starts working harder on his summer homework after being scolded by Mrs. Weasley. This leads to Ron noticing a change in Hermione's behavior toward him and Ginny helps him figure out what to do about it.

**You're Welcome**

"Harry, that's not right. Moonshae leaves need to be picked at dusk not at midnight. If you pick them at midnight for this potion and mix them with the other key ingredients it would be disastrous!"

Harry closed his eyes and counted to ten in his head before bringing his head up to look at Hermione. It was a new technique he was trying so he wouldn't lose his temper as much. "Hermione, it's just an essay for Snape. He'd probably mark me down more if I got it all right. Say you helped or something…"

Hermione huffed, "Well, that doesn't matter. You should care that what you're writing isn't correct! What if you tried to make this potion someday and blew up your own potions lab?"

Harry's eyebrow raised in amusement, "First of all, I will never have my own potions lab. That's just weird. Second, why would I need to make wart water anytime in the future?"

Hermione looked a bit taken aback and stumbled around for an answer but Ron beat her to it, "I wouldn't mind spilling a bunch of that stuff on Malfoy."

Harry smiled and even laughed a bit, "Yeah, I guess knowing how to make wart water wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

"That is not what I meant, boys! Agua Verrucae – the proper name for the potion – has many uses in the medical field. It can be used to heal victims of certain poisons such as –"

"Hermione!" Harry cut in, "Spare us the lecture, 'kay?"

Hermione's face turned red and she glared at Harry, "Don't you have a History of Magic essay to finish too before school starts?" Then she turned on Ron and noticed he had his star charts out and was already working on his Astronomy assignment for the summer. "UGH!" she screamed, frustrated and ran upstairs to the room she shared with Ginny.

Harry and Hermione were both staying with the Weasleys for the rest of the summer before their 7th year. They were all given a lot more summer homework this year and Hermione was, of course, already done with hers and wishing she had more so she could better prepare herself for her N.E.W.T.s this year. She'd already read and reread her books from previous years while she was stuck at home. As soon as she got to the Weasley's she insisted that they take a trip to Diagon Alley to pick up the required books for 7th years. Now she was already done reading and taking notes on all of those as well. She even started some of the problems in her Arithmancy book but she decided to stop because she didn't know which ones the teacher was going to assign. That and she realized that if she finished all of her homework in the summer, she wouldn't have anything to do during the school year.

After looking at the pile of books in her trunk and deciding that she really didn't think she'd get anything new out of any of them by looking them over again, she decided to head back downstairs to help the boys with theirs – even if they did annoy her to no end.

They were both annoying her and she didn't understand why. She knew that she should be glad that Ron had begun to take his studies seriously but for some reason it was only annoying her more. She just didn't understand why she got so annoyed every time she looked over and saw him already working on something. She was pretty sure she was being a bit harsher on Harry because of this, but Harry needed to get his act together anyway. N.E.W.T.s were only months away!

* * *

"Is she gone?" After checking to make sure Hermione really had retreated to her room, Harry closed his unfinished potions essay unceremoniously into his potions book. "Time for some quidditch, eh, mate?"

Ron looked up from the star charts he was working on and said, "Eh, oh right, no, you go on ahead. I'll join you in a bit."

Harry looked at Ron a bit weird as he went right back to writing down something else on the star charts but Harry continued outside anyway. Harry had noticed that Ron was working a lot harder on his homework ever since Mrs. Weasley yelled at him at the beginning of the summer. That was before Hermione had gotten there and when Harry and Ron spent most of their time on brooms. Mrs. Weasley seemed to think that they should both be studying more before their 7th year but mostly took it out on Ron. She must have hit some sore points when mentioning how well his brothers Charlie and Bill did on their N.E.W.T.s because Ron was almost done with all of his summer homework. Hermione was right about Harry still having a History of Magic essay to do, but he also had to do his Astronomy charts, Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, and Charms essays. In fact, the only one he'd finished was his DADA essay. The DADA essay had actually sounded interesting to him and he'd finished that back at the Dursley's, but the rest instilled no such interest in him.

Harry grabbed his Firebolt from the broom shed and kicked into the air, all thoughts of homework blown away by the rush of air.

Ron had noticed Hermione turn to him after she was done chewing out Harry. He also noticed that she didn't chew him out. He hated it when she scolded him for not doing his homework… but he'd noticed that he hated it even more when she didn't. It almost made him want to go back to not doing his work before being asked like he'd done before his mum had yelled at him. But what if Hermione still didn't get after him to do it?

He'd been so confused since his mum told him that if he ever wanted to live up to Bill and Charlie that he'd have to get better grades on his N.E.W.T.s than he did on his O.W. L.s. Ron had always looked up to his older brothers and when he was young he'd say he was going to be just like them. Now he looked back and realized just how badly he'd failed at doing that. Bill and Charlie always did their summer essays first thing and then enjoyed the rest of their summer. They always got good marks but still managed to have a ton of friends. Ron knew he had great friends, but he never got the marks he wanted- and he knew that he could do better. This was his last year of school and he decided that he wasn't going to screw it up by not finishing his work. He was going to make Bill and Charlie and his mum proud. However, Ron was realizing that doing homework first and putting off having fun was more difficult than he'd thought.

Then, Hermione showed up and complicated matters even worse. Ron had no idea that him actually finishing his work would change how Hermione acted toward him so much. She barely talked to him anymore. She was shocked when she'd first arrived and found out that Ron was further along on his work than Harry. At first Ron was proud that he'd shocked Hermione, but then he'd noticed that she was only ever getting after Harry to do his work, not him. Sure, she'd still help him occasionally, but that was different. Hermione's lack of scolding made him want to stop doing his homework just so that she would start it up again! That made absolutely no sense to Ron and he was utterly confused.

Ron labeled another constellation and then started writing a few facts about it from the reading. Just then Hermione stepped into the room.

"Where is Harry?" she stopped in her tracks and stared at his potions book, "He went out to play quidditch again, didn't he?" She said this more to herself than to Ron and then rushed outside before Ron could even reply. He sighed and went back to listing what he could remember about the constellation. He was almost done.

* * *

A few hours later Ron closed his Astronomy book with a smile. "Finished! Finally!"

"Oh, that's good, Ron," said Hermione distractedly before she corrected another mistake that Harry was about to write into his essay. She was now standing behind him and looking over his shoulder as he worked, much to the annoyance of Harry.

"Hey, Hermione, since I'm done do you want to play a game of Wizard's Chess with me?" Harry sent a silent thank you to Ron and a hopeful look to Hermione.

"I don't know, I really shouldn't," Hermione said and Harry's face sunk and his shoulders drooped.

Ron looked just as dejected, "Right, I'll just," he paused not knowing what else he could do, "I'll just go see if Mum needs any help…"

Hermione watched as he trudged toward the kitchen and her eyes lingered just for a moment before she went back to 'helping' Harry with his work.

As soon as Ron entered the kitchen, Ginny's eyes lit up. Before Ron could ask if they needed any help Ginny dropped the towel she was using to dry dishes, grabbed Ron by the arm and dragged him out of the kitchen, tossing an excuse over her shoulder to their mum about needing Ron's help on some homework.

As soon as they left the kitchen Ron, flabbergasted, asked, "What the bloody hell just happened?"

"Ugh, I've been dying for an excuse to get out of there all day. I tried saying I needed to do my homework but I'd already used the excuse that I needed one of you guys to help me with something so I didn't have to work on it yesterday. So, Mum said that she didn't want me bothering any of you because you were already working on your own work."

"Right," Ron paused to try to comprehend what Ginny had just said and then said, "Hey! I'm not going to help you with your homework!"

Ginny just rolled her eyes, "You don't have to, doofus, that's just what I told Mum. Anyway, wanna play some quidditch?"

Ron smiled, "Absolutely."

* * *

Ron and Ginny had already raced around the yard 7 times (with Ginny winning all but one time) and they had now set up floating hula hoops as the goals and Ron was guarding them as Ginny tried to score. They were pretty evenly matched but were still having fun keeping score. They were chatting, mostly to try to distract each other and make the other mess up. They'd already talked about Ginny's latest boyfriend (4 scores for Ginny and a very red Ron) and Ron brought up Ginny's day with their mum in the kitchen (3 easy blocks for Ron and an almost as red Ginny).

"So how much homework do you still have to do?" asked Ron as he dived and deflected Ginny's thrown quaffle.

"Actually, I've been done for awhile now. I just used it as an excuse not to do housework," she maneuvered her way to one side of Ron and then quickly shot over and scored in the hoop he'd left unguarded, "You've been pretty obsessed with your work lately. What's up?"

Ron paused before throwing the quaffle back to Ginny, "Well, I guess I'm finally figuring out my priorities or something."

Ginny caught the quaffle and tossed it from one hand to the other, "More like you're turning into Hermione." Ginny noticed she'd hit a nerve when Ron flew completely the wrong direction and almost ended up falling off his broom. "What's up between you two anyway?" she continued as she watched his face grow more and more red, "You two don't even fight anymore."

Ron mumbled something and he didn't even notice Ginny's latest shot.

"You like her, don't you?"

Ron's eyes grew wide, both at the accusation and the added fact that Hermione's voice just drifted out of the house saying, "Get back here, Harry! You still have 4 inches left!"

Ron blurted out, "No! I mean, I don't know. Just be quiet."

Ginny smirked and flew in closer, "You do. You like her. How'd you figure it out?"

Ron, skin the same color of his hair, admitted, "I missed her scolding me for not doing my school work."

At this, Ginny cracked up laughing and flew back down to the ground. Ron followed her glaring. Ron, in an attempt to save face added, "Well, maybe I don't like her… Maybe I just miss her or something."

Ginny raised her eyebrow at Ron, "Are you serious? Stop trying to make excuses. You like Hermione, and now we just have to figure out how you're going to tell her."

"Tell her? We?" Ron croaked out, "Hang on just one minute. _We _aren't telling her anything. She's a girl, she can figure it out for herself, right? You girls are good at all that emotion-y stuff, right?"

Ginny smiled and asked, "Do you realize how high pitched your voice just got."

"What?!" Ron asked in the same high pitched voice.

"Okay, here's the thing, Ron," Ginny clapped an arm around his shoulders in a conspiratorial way, "Hermione likes you too."

Ron's head spun around to stare at Ginny with his mouth open, "She," he stuttered a bit, "she does? Did she tell you that?"

"Well, no and to tell you the truth, even if she did I couldn't tell you." At this point she mock whispered, "That'd be against the rules."

"Well, then how can you tell if she likes me? She's spending an awful lot of time with Harry. What if she likes Harry?"

"Oh please. She doesn't like Harry. She's only spending time with him because she doesn't know how she can spend time with you anymore now that you're not trying to get away with not doing your homework and now that you're not asking for her help on every little thing."

"Oh," Ron looked like it was taking awhile for everything that Ginny had said to sink in.

Ginny just waited patiently until Ron finally asked, "So, I should tell her?"

"Yes, you should tell her." With that Ginny walked back to the house leaving Ron with his thoughts, and smirking the whole way. As she walked through the door, she didn't even look sideways as she said, "You're welcome," and then headed up to her room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Harry was still working on his essay with Hermione hovering over him.

"But Hermione, it says in the book that the what's-it-called root has to be powdered."

"For the last time, Harry, you're looking at the wrong potion. It has to be powdered for the sinking salve but not for this potion. You have to dice it for this one." Hermione looked like she was at her last straw and strangely Harry looked like he was enjoying himself. Hermione was starting to think that he was purposely acting stupid to annoy her.

Just then his head darted up to the window and he said excitedly, "I hear quidditch noises!" And sure enough, just then Ron and Ginny darted past the window on brooms.

Harry went to stand up but Hermione pushed him back down. "Oh no you don't!"

Harry tried giving Hermione a sad, dejected look, but Hermione's face remained stony, "Puppy-eyes don't work on me, Harry. You should know that by now. Now get back to work."

He got back to work but continued to glance up at the window every couple of seconds.

Hermione had finally had enough of his distractions and said barely containing her anger, "Harry. Work. Now."

Harry's head shot back down to the parchment in front of him and away from the window. Hermione sighed in relief. She could still scare him into submission.

Suddenly, Harry shot out of his chair and bolted toward the back door. Hermione flailed her arms at him and just barely managed to hang onto his arm. She latched on and tried to stop him from making it outside and to freedom. She screamed at him, "Get back here, Harry! You still have 4 inches left!"

Finally Hermione stopped Harry, just at the doorway. She was about to drag him back to the table when he shushed her.

Ron's voice floated in to them saying, "I missed her scolding me for not doing my school work."

Hermione froze. Who scolded him about schoolwork other than her? Were they talking about her? Hermione continued to listen and heard Ginny laughing, followed by Ron saying, "Well, maybe I don't like her… Maybe I just miss her or something."

Hermione's eyes bulged. They couldn't be talking about her. Hermione decided quickly that they must be talking about some other person that scolded Ron for not doing his school work. That theory was shattered as Ginny said, "Are you serious? Stop trying to make excuses. You like Hermione, and now we just have to figure out how you're going to tell her."

Hermione gulped and looked sheepishly over at Harry. Surprisingly, Harry didn't look shocked but instead looked almost as amused as Ginny sounded.

"Tell her? We?" Hermione noticed that Ron's voice had gone up a pitch or two, "Hang on just one minute. _We _aren't telling her anything. She's a girl, she can figure it out for herself, right? You girls are good at all that emotion-y stuff, right?"

"Do you realize how high pitched your voice just got."

"What?!" Hermione couldn't help but smile at Ron's panicked voice.

"Okay, here's the thing, Ron, Hermione likes you too."

Hermione's smile dissolved as her bottom jaw dropped and then her eyes scrunched up in a death glare in Ginny's general direction as she hissed, "She swore she wouldn't!"

Harry snorted and Hermione almost missed "She- she does? Did she tell you that?"

Hermione held her breath to hear Ginny's answer while glaring at Harry for his suddenly very loud sounding breathing.

"Well, no and to tell you the truth, even if she did I couldn't tell you. That'd be against the rules."

"Damn right it would," hissed Hermione again. Glaring at Harry as he snickered.

"Well, then how can you tell if she likes me? She's spending an awful lot of time with Harry. What if she likes Harry?" Hermione's eyebrows flew up as she looked at Harry. He also stopped laughing and looked curiously over at her. Panicky, Hermione mouthed, "I don't" to Harry as she strained to hear Ginny's response.

"Oh please. She doesn't like Harry. She's only spending time with him because she doesn't know how she can spend time with you anymore now that you're not trying to get away with not doing your homework and now that you're not asking for her help on every little thing." Hermione tossed the words around in her head a little and then began nodding her acceptance.

"Oh. So, I should tell her?"

"Yes, you should tell her."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up again and she sat there dumbfounded for a bit until Ginny walked in the door and without a glance toward Hermione and Harry on the floor, said, "You're welcome," before heading up to her room.

* * *

I hope you liked it! Let me know in a review and check out my profile for updates on my other story.


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